Sustainable routes for quantitative green selenocyanation of activated alkynes

Most organic reactions require the usage of volatile organic compounds in the synthesis, work-up and purification processes, thus resulting in major environmental pollution and high manufacturing cost. By using cheap biomass lactic acid as the reaction media and catalyst, a sustainable protocol for the synthesis of Z-3-selenocyanatoacrylates and analogues through green selenocyanation of activated alkynes has been achieved. A principal advantage of this protocol is that the usage of organic volatile compounds can be avoided entirely, as the conversion of substrate is almost quantitative or quantitative with a minimal amount of lactic acid employed as reaction media, and the pure products can be conveniently collected through water precipitation. (C) 2019 Chinese Chemical Society and Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.